The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Learning the proper skill and precision for safely and effectively inserting a medical needle into a patient can be a difficult and tedious process. Such training becomes more complex and complicated when the training must occur under field conditions, i.e., at locations other than established medical training facilities such as temporary and/or mobile military medical facilities or bases.
Medical personnel whose job responsibilities include performing needle insertions on patients must be trained and certified for that skill set. Those skill sets also require regular practice to maintain proficiency and recertification. In addition, in emergency or military battlefield circumstances, proper (decompression) needle insertion can mean the difference between life and death for an injured patient. That is, proper and effective needle insertion training can prepare a medical responder to timely and properly treat the two leading causes of preventable death in a traumatic emergency: (i) administration of intravenous fluids for loss of blood, dehydration and shock; and (ii) needle decompression for relief of tension pneumo-thorax (collapsing lung). Consequently, in addition to benefitting medical personnel in routine intravenous needle procedures, ongoing training and practice of proper needle insertion training techniques by emergency responders and troops is therefore critically important.
Traditional medical needle insertion training devices are designed for classroom settings. They typically include a replicated human body part (e.g., a leg, arm or torso), and focus on anatomical correctness—not convenience. Most require support components (e.g., pumps and monitors) that link to the anatomical component with tubes and wires. Moreover, all of the training components require separate storage—even the needles (a/k/a “Sharps”). Hence, traditional training devices are large and unwieldy, not very durable, and not very portable. Up to recently, the prevailing attitude in the medical community had been that the student would learn and practice needle insertion techniques at an institution or facility supplied with a traditional training device. As a consequence, training, certification and recertification efforts have been traditionally focused on classroom training, with few options for home or other out-of-classroom practice.
Recently a few “portable” or “personal” devices have been introduced, including for example the self-contained needle insertion training system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,556,634 (the “'634 Patent”). Such training systems are stand-alone devices that are not designed for use in conjunction with a traditional classroom training system. It would be desirable to have a traditional classroom needle insertion training system that incorporates portable or take-home training components that are designed for cooperative use with the classroom system.
Moreover, needle insertion training devices all utilize synthetic veins, generally in the form of rolls of surgical tubing, to simulate veins and arteries. These veins need regular and routine replacement during training as the procedures necessitate repeated puncturing of the tubing. The synthetic vein is traditionally replaced in one of two ways. If the training device is designed to hold specific lengths of tubing, a replacement length of tubing is drawn from a spool or roll of tubing and cut to size, then clamped or otherwise held in place for training purposes. If the training device is designed to secure a portion of a spool or roll of tubing, additional length of tubing is drawn from the spool or roll and secured to the training device for use, while the damaged section is cut off. This procedure can be tedious and time consuming, and is further complicated when it is desired to train with simulated blood in the vein. Traditionally, this is accomplished by using a syringe to fill a section of tubing with simulated blood. The length of tubing must be the proper length, secured at one end, and must be secured at the other end once filled with fluid. It would therefore be desirable to have synthetic veins or a synthetic vein system that allows for easy replacement of the synthetic veins for needle insertion training systems.
As will become evident in this disclosure, the present invention provides benefits over the existing art.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of drawings.